Co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, Iyin Aboyeji, Confirmed To Speak At NECLive8

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, one of Africa’s most brilliant technology entrepreneurs, has been confirmed as a lead speaker for the 2021 edition of the annual Nigerian Entertainment Conference (NECLive).

NECLive, the biggest gathering of professionals in the Nigerian entertainment industry, will hold on Sunday, April 25, 2021. The event is returning after a one-year hiatus, and this year’s edition, themed “Building The Future”, will be a hybrid media event, combining with a studio set-up of selected speakers with live global broadcast on cable TV and online.

Born on March 28, 1991, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji holds a bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the University of Waterloo, Canada. In 2014 he co-founded Andela, a talent accelerator company that specialises in scouting and discovering software developers. In January 2019, Andela raised $100 million in a funding round, which put the company’s valuation at over $600 million.

In 2015, Aboyeji co-founded Future Africa, a platform that connects innovators and investors. The company, popular in Africa’s tech space, is a major angel investor in the Nigerian financial market, and currently holds a portfolio of about 28 startups to whom it deploys investment funds, including 54Gene, Stears, Kobo360, Stem Café and Lori Systems. 

In 2016, Aboyeji co-founded Flutterwave, a fintech company that specialises in payment solutions. The company has processed over 140 million transactions on behalf of 290,000 businesses across Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. The total value of these transactions, according to Flutterwave, adds up to over $9 billion. On March 10, 2021, Flutterwave announced that it had raised its valuation to $1 billion, making it only the fourth fintech unicorn in Africa.

Speaking on Aboyeji’s anticipated presence at NECLive8, Femi Falodun, CEO of ID Africa says, “He (Aboyeji) is a true inspiration for young innovators and entrepreneurs in Africa, and he is unarguably one of the most remarkable thinkers of this generation. We are delighted to have him on NECLive8.”

Other confirmed speakers at this year’s event include Nigerian comedians Basketmouth and Bovi; Nollywood star, Dakore Egbuson-Akande; veteran broadcaster Jacob Akinyemi-Johnson, and founder of the Temple Management Company, Idris Olorunnimbe. 

Over the span of seven years, NECLive has attracted over 12,000 physical participants and 20 million viewers and audiences on television and digital. Nigerian Entertainment Conference (often stylized as NECLive), with the hashtag #NECLive is an umbrella conference for the entertainment industry in Nigeria, which continually discusses the trajectory development of the sector and shapes the discourse and practices surrounding it. 

#NECLive is the marketplace for innovative ideas, products, the unveiling of dynamic solutions that will connect, engage and encourage industry collaborations for sustainable socio-economic development while offering a brighter future in the continent.